Rising Sun

Rising Sun

1993 "A collision of East and West. A conspiracy of seduction and murder. A battle between tradition and power. Business is war."
Rising Sun
Rising Sun

Rising Sun

6.2 | 2h5m | R | en | Drama

When a prostitute is found dead in a Los Angeles skyscraper occupied by a large Japanese corporation, detectives John Connor and Web Smith are called in to investigate. Although Connor has previous experience working in Japan, cultural differences make their progress difficult until a security disc showing the murder turns up. Close scrutiny proves the disc has been doctored, and the detectives realize they're dealing with a cover-up as well.

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6.2 | 2h5m | R | en | Drama , Action , Thriller | More Info
Released: July. 30,1993 | Released Producted By: 20th Century Fox , Walrus & Associates Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

When a prostitute is found dead in a Los Angeles skyscraper occupied by a large Japanese corporation, detectives John Connor and Web Smith are called in to investigate. Although Connor has previous experience working in Japan, cultural differences make their progress difficult until a security disc showing the murder turns up. Close scrutiny proves the disc has been doctored, and the detectives realize they're dealing with a cover-up as well.

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Cast

Sean Connery , Wesley Snipes , Tia Carrere

Director

Angelo P. Graham

Producted By

20th Century Fox , Walrus & Associates

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Reviews

rzajac I'm choosing not to rate this flick, in part because I walked out after about 10 minutes. I think it's only fair.I went with my (then) wife to a movie theater to see it. The first 10 minutes were a cavalcade of cleverly deployed scenario work and imagery designed to make you hate/resent the Japanese, as a race.I'm reminded of a bit near the end of Mark Alan Stamaty's original "Washingtoons" book, where Senator Bob Forehead is talking with his wife, Ginger. He's by now completely immersed in and in thrall to Beltway-think, and he's haranguing Ginger about how he has to work so hard to stay abreast with the emotional-response demands of his job. He tells her that the Washington ideological collective hive-mind is constantly shifting... "For example: Do you hate Japan, yet?" he says. Ginger says, "No." "Damn it, woman! How do you expect to survive here if you can't keep up?!?!?!"From time to time, it really does appear that Hollywood plies its wares to serve zeitgeist production needs emanating from Washington. For example, I consider Top Gun to have been a flick that sought to normalize the view that having the most rarefied, highest-tech death machines is (for America) as natural and emotionally salubrious as a roll in the hay.The thing about Rising Sun is its almost artless obviousness: At least Top Gun wove a kind of myth--you could still see the propagandistic marionette strings, but if you closed your eyes and shook your head a couple of times and they'd obligingly disappear. The opening 10 minutes of Rising Sun is an almost textbook opportunity to study how the buttons get pushed to drive home an ideological message: "It's now time to hate the Japanese."I wanted none of this, so I walked out.>>> side note: I didn't realize it at the time, but my (now ex-)wife had implanted fears which could be triggered by filmed sexuality. She willingly joined me as I made for the door, but for a different reason; because the Jap-john/Anglo-hooker scene was heating up, and it was making her queasy. She didn't see any of the stuff I talk about, above. <<<
seymourblack-1 Based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name, "Rising Sun" is an absorbing murder mystery that's spiced-up by some high-tech wizardry, culture clashes and the friction that develops between a couple of mismatched cops. The action takes place at the U.S. headquarters of the Japanese Nakamoto Corporation in L.A. where, what first appears to be a straightforward investigation into the death of a young woman, becomes complicated by the discovery of a conspiracy, a cover-up and a political dimension to some negotiations that the corporation is involved in with an American company called MicroCon. The presence of a number of possible suspects, a desire to protect the reputation of the Japanese business and a need to navigate some important cultural differences, then make the whole investigation rather challenging.After the dead body of blonde prostitute Cheryl Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is discovered lying on a boardroom table in the Nakamoto offices during a party hosted by the corporation, LAPD investigating officer Lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel) arrives on the scene and deduces that she was a "gasper" whose enjoyment of asphyxiation during sex had contributed to her death. Forensic evidence and film of the incident during which she died (which was captured on laser disk), then support the view that the killer was her current Japanese boyfriend Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). Graham isn't able to wrap the case up immediately and so Special Services liaison officers Lieutenant Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and Captain John Connor (Sean Connery) who have more expertise in communicating with Japanese businessmen, are brought in to assist.Smith is a streetwise detective who resents having to team up with his semi-retired partner and Connor is an expert on all things Japanese who soon recognises that the circumstances surrounding the death of Cheryl Austin are not as simple as Lieutenant Graham had originally assumed. Through his experience of living in "the land of the rising sun", Connor had learned a great deal about Japanese culture and customs and uses this knowledge to good effect to interact smoothly with the people from the Nakamoto Corporation and to advance the police investigation far quicker than would otherwise have been possible.It soon emerges that the laser disk recording of the murder had been doctored and so further work then becomes necessary to access the original recording and to investigate whether there was any special significance to evidence of Austin's involvement with Senator John Morton (Ray Wise) who, for reasons of national security, had strongly opposed the negotiations that Nakamoto were conducting with MicroCon.A complicated plot, the complexities of its characters and the difficulties created by cultural differences, all add interest to what otherwise would have been a simple whodunit. "Rising Sun" is well-paced, visually strong and features some good performances, most notably from Snipes and Connery who work brilliantly together to make their difficult relationship a pleasure to watch.
gavin6942 At the offices of a Japanese corporation, during a party, a woman, who is evidently a professional mistress, is found dead, apparently after some rough hanky panky.1993 was apparently a good year for Michael Crichton. He had "Jurassic Park", one of the biggest hits of all time. And then he had this, which I think has been more or less forgotten. Which is a bit of a shame, because the Connery / Snipes pairing is interesting, as is the slight dip into the Yakuza.My concern with the film is its emphasis on digital technology. I was around in 1993 and computer literate. Surely editing a video was possible, but to the extent it is shown here? It would be darn near impossible... the frame-by-frame editing would take much too long. But if I ignore that, it makes for a great thriller.
The_Film_Cricket Michael Crichton is the king of details when comes to his books. His stories go down to the absolute detailed mechanics of their subject so that we arise knowing a little more about it then we did when we started - This is a guy who does his homework. Rising Sun was about eccentricities of a competitive Japanese conglomerate. He really got inside this world and gave you a feel for what it must be like on the inside.What aggravates me about 'Rising Sun' as a movie is that it seems to have been adapted by someone who learned by watching cop-buddy movies. It takes place in Los Angeles where a new Japanese conglomerate is just getting started. A woman is found dead in a conference room strangled to death and the killer seems to be the girl's lover Eddie Sakamura (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) who is a shrewd businessman with some ties in the criminal underworld. But in order to keep the new conglomerate from looking bad right from the start, they decide to call in a crime expert.Enter John Conner (Sean Connery), a worldly-wise detective who is able to figure things out just by observation the way Sherlock Holmes might have. His Watson is Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) one of those slick movie cops who constantly insults his partner and throws out a stream of glib one-liners because well – he's a black movie cop.This combination is what sets the movie on the wrong track. For most of the movie Connery uses his knowledge of Japanese culture and motives to gather information while Snipes stands by and tosses out a joke and gives the wrong information. Why was this necessary? Why does the sidekick have to be wrong all the time. Why isn't he able to counter Connery's information with his own knowledge? I could imagine a good sidekick being played by, say Giancarlo Giannini. You would have two very intelligent men working together instead of the approach of having Snipes say something stupid and Connery countering it.And what about the dead girl? There is never an attempt to give us much emotional interest in her. She is just a sexy model, killed in a kinky murder to be the movie's McGuffin. There is actually more time spent on the video of the murder then on the victim. A video disk was taken of the killer with the face blotted out and covered with the image of someone else, but who cares? This is a movie with so little emotional interest.